And it's awful to go watch soccer in Ottawa for that very reason. Ugly and dangerous artifical field + stands very far.

Ottawa have small crowds and we will see for Hamilton and Winnipeg, Winnipeg especially with the stadium in the middle of nowhere and the stands even further away, basically you can't get any worst stadiums that those for soccer.

If they want to have succes, small 5k 10k stadiums for soccer only and real grass is the way to go.

And ticketmaster means very high fees for no good reason.

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To the first point, I disagree. The only thing awful about Ottawa is that they can't pack both sides of the stands due to the quality of play/marketing, that's the real issue. You can reach out a touch a player from the stands in Ottawa.

Second, modern turf performs just as well as poorly maintained grass which is what every CanPL team will suffer from given the climate and the fact some stadiums double as CFL stadiums. Even BMO struggles to keep their grass pristine and they have the top of the line equipment, dedicated groundskeepers and spend millions a year on it. If it's good enough for the Whitecaps, good enough for some Scottish Premier League teams it's good enough for Canadian teams.

The third point about size I agree with, but there's no real option for that in those three markets without building a new, which kinda defeats what their CFL owners are trying to do, which is leverage their existing stadiums more.

The fourth, I neither agree nor disagree. Having a solid ticket distributor is a good thing to have, the downside is I heard a rumor they are going entirely to mobile tickets, which I am not a fan of.

You should try to play on turf. It's terrible, it's easy to injure yourself and it slows the play down, it slows you when running and it looks UGLY from the stands and from tv. The ball also doesn't bounce the same way and often a nice through pass will go out of bounds for no reason. I prefer to play, referee and watch soccer on grass even bad grass over turf. Also the turf will absorb the sun and heat and make it even more hot on the playing surface. In not so long I see turf being banned.

I agree Ottawa isn't that far...compare to Hamilton and especially Winnipeg! And going by mobile tickets is beyong stupid. So far I'm not impressed by the league. But I'll wait when it starts to really decide if it's worth watching.

I've played on turf and grass and I prefer turf (at least in Canada). Most grass fields here are in terrible shape. I also like that turf is predictable and much easier to play a possession or passing based system.

The heat in the summer from the turf though does get silly at times. Felt like my feet were melting last summer.

Will be interesting to see how this league does. Got to wonder if a team from Montreal or Vancouver would enter. Or would the MLS being in those cities deter that?

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I think both of the markets will get a team at some point. The MLS is obviously going to rain supreme in the cities but a smaller club that provides a truly Canadian experience is great for both of those cities. Plus for the CPL itself they will want to do everything in their power to get into those markets. Would be huge for the growth of the league and overall sport.

So the team that wins the Spring season have absolutely nothing to play for in the Fall season? That's the best way to have close to zero interest in this league. It's not a typical North American calendar of season+playoffs and it's not either a typical European Soccer calendar of one real Championship and a Cup. I'll leave this thread, I have no interest in this anymore.